Fulton, N.Y. -- A Solvay man has been charged with swindling an Oswego County car dealership out of more than $31,000, Fulton police said.

Patrick R. Hunsinger, 41, was charged with three counts of grand larceny.

Police said Hunsinger posed as a used car dealer with a lot in Syracuse. He bought three cars from Southern Image Auto in Fulton in April and May of 2010. A few days later he had driven the cars home.

Southern Image let Hunsinger pay with checks because they thought he was a car dealer, police said.

But the car dealership later found out that Hunsinger had written them a total of $31,856.60 in bad checks.

The dealer contacted Hunsinger, who said he would pay. But he never did, police said. The dealer tried to collect the money in 2010 as bad checks, but apparently forgot to forward the checks to police.

While going through financial records, police said, the dealer recently found the checks and forwarded them to police.